Is Edward Augustus qualified to be Worcester manager?

WORCESTER — Across the country, municipal managers in cities with populations of 100,000 to 249,999 boast an average of 23.8 years of experience in local government management.

Edward M. Augustus Jr., the new Worcester city manager, has zero.

When the City Council appointed him in December for what is supposed to be a nine-month stint succeeding former City Manager Michael V. O'Brien, councilors knew that Mr. Augustus, 47, had a long career spent largely in Democratic Party political circles.

However, that experience, while considerable, is antithetical to the apolitical ideal of Plan E council-manager form of government that has been in place in New England's second-largest city for more than six decades, critics say.

"He's never actually managed a half a billion dollar budget, not even close," said City Councilor At-Large Michael Gaffney, who was sworn into office last month and did not participate in the 9-1 vote in favor of Mr. Augustus' appointment. "We are looking for a professional manager. What we've got is a professional politician."

Councilor At-Large Konstantina B. Lukes, the only councilor to vote against the new manager, said Mr. Augustus' selection "goes to show how parochial Worcester still is."

Now, Mrs. Lukes is trying to stop a series of community meetings that Mayor Joseph M. Petty and District 2 Councilor Philip P. Palmieri are considering setting up to find out what people want in a permanent city manager; she is arguing the meetings would be a violation of the city charter and open meeting laws.

"It indicates they're being turned into political rally types of events to see who can get the most people out," she said. "This is so antagonistic to a professional search."

Mr. Augustus, most recently director of community relations at the College of the Holy Cross, put in six years as chief of staff for U.S. Rep. James P. McGovern, and another five years as the Democratic congressman's campaign manager.

He represented Worcester and more than a dozen suburban towns in the Massachusetts state Senate for four years and was an elected Worcester School Committee member for four years before that. He was chief of staff for an assistant education secretary in Washington, D.C., during former President Bill Clinton's administration.

He has long been a close confidant and political ally of Timothy P. Murray, the CEO of the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce and former state Democratic lieutenant governor and Worcester mayor.

In an interview in his City Hall office Friday, Mr. Augustus rejected the notion that he is part of a Democratic axis of power here, maintaining that he got along well with Republican state representatives in his former Senate district during his years in office from 2005 to 2009.

He noted that his tenure in elected office was short, and his supporters maintain it was long enough ago to create separation from his current job.

"It was about delivering for the town. It wasn't partisan," he said in an interview in Mr. O'Brien's old office, where the only major change Mr. Augustus has made so far is to reorient the direction of his desk. "The Republican legislators and I represented the same constituents."

The Republican minority leader of the Massachusetts Senate, Bruce Tarr of Gloucester, remembers Mr. Augustus as intellectual, soft-spoken, and collegial.

"I'd put him at left of center politically, but he wasn't on the extreme edge," Mr. Tarr said. "Certainly his approach in the Senate was more practical than ideological."

Mr. Augustus said his experience running smaller staffs and budgets is transferable to the larger urban setting and its 181,000 residents and 1,800 city employees, and he noted that he is working with experienced staffs in law, budgeting, economic development and other policy areas.

Working with Mr. McGovern in the past, he said he delved deeply into redevelopment issues with the Gateway Park biotech complex and Hanover Theatre renovation, federal emergency management help for the city after natural disasters, among other work.

"I know the city. I know the players. I've been involved in municipal issues, even though not as a municipal employee," he said. "People should judge me on what I do."

In an interview Friday, Mr. McGovern said he was proud of his protégé.

"I can say with certainty that he's focused on doing the best job he can," the congressman said. "People who know him, know he's fair-minded, conscientious, and, at the end of the day, achieves results."

Mr. Augustus also maintained that his longstanding ties to organized labor won't prevent him from negotiating municipal labor contracts that are fair to both taxpayers and workers. "It's almost like Nixon goes to China," he said, referring to the late Republican president's unexpected diplomatic overtures to the Communist power.

Mr. Augustus' experience and personal and political connections — the same attributes that his supporters tout as disqualifiers — are what his supporters argue distinguish him in much the same way as his predecessor, Mr. O'Brien, had intangible qualities that set him above the classic professional municipal manager.

Mr. O'Brien was also hired without a formal search process, and after only two years as the city's parks and recreation commissioner; he had held lesser jobs in the city administration for eight years before that.

Mr. Murray, the chamber CEO who as mayor 10 years ago led the move to install Mr. O'Brien without a search to replace former longtime professional manager Thomas R. Hoover, said both Mr. Augustus and Mr. O'Brien have the intellect, work ethic and passion for the job.

"I did not actively lobby for anyone. People may call from time to time to get your opinion," Mr. Murray said. "The manager's job is about getting things done, not scoring partisan political points."

It was Mr. Petty, the city's mayor (a largely ceremonial post under Plan E government), who actually extended the job offer to Mr. Augustus on Nov. 20, a day after Mr. O'Brien resigned to take a private sector job.

Mr. Petty, who has indicated that the council will conduct a search, said he was particularly impressed after watching Mr. Augustus as the emcee of an event the day before to inaugurate a satellite library at an elementary school.

"I think he's very talented," Mr. Petty, another of the city's leading Democrats, said. "He gets it. He understands people issues. That's one of the main reasons we brought him in. He knows everybody. He knows people in Washington, in Boston. He knows how to get things done."

The last Worcester city manager to be hired after a wide-ranging search — conducted by Atlanta-based Mercer Group, the nation's largest government executive search firm — was Mr. Hoover, now city manager of Coventry, R.I.

Like many city managers who are members of the International Association of City and County Managers, Mr. Hoover goes through an annual certification that involves 40 hours of training a year. Also in common with most municipal managers, Mr. Hoover has many years in the business, in his case, 47.

"Number one, we're apolitical," Mr. Hoover said, describing the outlook he says he shares with most of his fellow managers. "We're professional managers."

Several area town managers asked to comment about a non-professional manager taking over the region's biggest municipal management job, declined to talk publicly about it.

"It's really the needs of the community that come into play in the search for managers," said Patricia Mikes, spokeswoman for the Massachusetts Municipal Association. "I don't know what the council was looking for in terms of experience."

But William Fraser, 55, city manager in Montpelier, Vt., said his more than 30 years experience in municipal government in Vermont, Cambridge, Mass., New Hampshire and Maine prepared him for his 19 years at the helm of the state capitol in a way no other jobs could have.

Mr. Fraser said he believes it is essential for chief executives in council-manager systems to be politically neutral so they are not perceived as favoring one faction or another or put themselves in weakened positions when negotiating with elected state officials of another party.

"I absolutely believe in the manager form of government. Having a professionally run city works for the people," he said. "When you have a mayor, decisions are made for political consideration."

Like Mr. Hoover and Mr. Fraser, the city managers in Cambridge and Lowell — the other two major Massachusetts cities with council-manager systems — have many years of experience in their profession.

Cambridge City Manager Richard C. Rossi was deputy manager of the city of 103,000 for 32 years until he recently succeeded longtime manager Robert Healy, who retired last year.

Lowell City Manager Bernard F. Lynch has run the Merrimack Valley city of 108,000 since 2006. Previously, he was town manager in Chelmsford for 17 years, and was the town's executive secretary before that.

Mr. Lynch, who is leaving the post in March to teach and do consulting, said one of the advantages of being a professional manager and member of the ICMA group are the structured professional development opportunities and wide-ranging code of ethics.

"Without going into what happened in Worcester, I do think having a background in municipal management is very important," Mr. Lynch said. "Someone who knows municipal finance and municipal planning, for example, is very helpful."

Compared to those veteran professionals, Mr. Augustus is decidedly more of a political animal, his detractors argue.

"He's definitely a hardcore Democrat and party insider," said Brent J. Andersen of Auburn, treasurer of the state Republican Party and owner of a Worcester insurance business. "His on-paper qualifications are limited. He got it because he worked for McGovern."

Mr. McGovern said he didn't push for Mr. Augustus.

"Contrary to the rumors out there, I haven't talked to anyone," he said. "This is a great choice, but I didn't have to lobby anybody. This was proposed by the mayor."

Contact Shaun Sutner at ssutner@telegram.com. Follow him on Twitter @ssutner.